We aren't very big on Easter in our family. Sure, when I was a kid, Mom would dutifully fill plastic eggs with candy and hide them all over the house -- often so well that we'd still be finding them weeks later -- and there was always an annual Easter basket full of exciting toys and goodies. One year, when the holiday fell near my birthday as it did this year, Mom even threw me an Easter-themed birthday party complete with a decorated Easter tree, individually-sized Easter egg cakes, and an egg hunt. But in more recent years, Easter has sort of fallen to the wayside in our family's holiday landscape. I blame it on lack of religiosity.
In lieu of celebrating, we typically commemorate the passing of the day with a traditional viewing of Jesus Christ Superstar, or at least a listening to the soundtrack. I have yet to find the occasion that cannot be improved with the introduction of musical theater, and even if the faithful find it to be sacrilegious, I find that the addition of rock opera to be just the motivation I need to sit through the story of the Passion. So far, I haven't been smote from the heavens...
This year, I decided to capitalize on the arrival of Easter as an excuse to bake more cookies. I found an Easter egg cookie cutter on sale a few weeks ago, and I had been holding it in reserve just for this occasion. Even though I was busy with my birthday, and a few projects around the condo, I made a point of making these cookies. This time around, I forced myself to experiment with new patterns, and while some of them were more successful than others, I was pleased on balance with the results.
Mostly, I was annoyed that I couldn't realize my intended color palette of pastel green, pink, and yellow. I had the wrong color of green food coloring for this project, and I accidentally made the pink too vibrant. Ever since my first batch of Valentine's Day cookies, I haven't been thrilled by the pairing of the pink and purple produced by my gel food coloring set. Something about the combination causes the purple to look more grey than I would like. Still, every cookie decorating opportunity provides a chance to expand my skill set, so from that perspective, I think it was a successful project.
Ultimately, this batch of cookies provided another illustration of the benefits of having a boyfriend, particularly one with a family bigger than my own -- a place to dispose of excess cookies. As I may or may not have previously mentioned, I don't actually like to eat sugar cookies myself; I merely enjoy the challenge of baking them. Hence, whenever I make a batch, I need to find a place to get rid of them. In the past, I've included them in my Cookie Bonanza, sent them to relatives, and sold them at a bakesale. This time, the spoils went to Zac and his family, who, I'm told, enjoyed them and even took them along to a family Easter gathering. I'm just glad they found a good home...
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